National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Grade 12 Results

"Nation’s Report Card” Shows New Hampshire Students Perform at the Top of the CountryGrade 12 Reading and Mathematics Results Released for 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress

New Hampshire’s 12th graders, as a whole, continue to perform near the top in reading and mathematics compared to students across the nation, according to the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results released today.

In reading, New Hampshire’s average grade 12 score was significantly higher than the national average. On a scale from 0 to 500, New Hampshire’s average was 295, compared to a national average of 287. Only Connecticut’s students, with an average score of 299, outperformed New Hampshire’s. The next closest average scores were in Massachusetts, with an average score of 293, and Idaho, with an average score of 292. But, even though New Hampshire’s students were among some of the highest performers in the country, only 45 percent of them were deemed proficient in reading.

Twelfth graders who take the NAEP test are deemed proficient in reading if they can, among other things, locate and integrate information using sophisticated analyses of the meaning and form of the text. These students should also be able to provide specific text support for inferences, interpretative statements, and comparisons within and across texts.

“I applaud New Hampshire’s students for showing yet again that we have some of the highest quality educators, communities and schools in the country,” New Hampshire Commissioner of Education Virginia Barry said. “But there is always room for improvement, and we also know that our students will compete in a global economy, so we must be mindful to ensure students are engaged in rigorous academic programs.”

In mathematics, New Hampshire’s average score was also significantly higher than the national average. On a scale from 0 to 300, New Hampshire’s average score was 161, compared to 152 for the nation, 161 for Massachusetts, 160 for Connecticut, 159 for New Jersey and 159 for South Dakota. While New Hampshire’s students are among the top performers in the nation, the scores show room for continued improvement. Thirty-two percent of New Hampshire students were deemed proficient in mathematics, compared to 34 percent for Massachusetts, 32 percent for Connecticut, 33 percent for New Jersey and 28 percent for South Dakota. Twelfth-grade students performing at the proficient level should be able to recognize when particular concepts, procedures, and strategies are appropriate, and to select, integrate, and apply them to solve problems. Their skills should include the ability to test and validate geometric and algebraic conjectures using a variety of methods, including deductive reasoning and counterexamples.

Each New Hampshire student that participated in the assessment was asked to complete two 25-minute sessions in either reading or mathematics. The reading assessment used both literary and informational texts. Literary texts included fiction, literary nonfiction and poetry. Informational texts included exposition, argumentative/persuasive, and procedural texts. The cognitive reading behaviors of locate and recall, integrate and interpret, and critique and evaluate were evaluated with both literary and informational passages. With Mathematics, number properties and operations; measurement; geometry; data analysis, statistics, and probability; and algebra were evaluated with low, moderate, and high levels of question complexity.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, commonly known as “the Nation’s Report Card,” is mandated by federal law and is conducted at both the state and the national level. This assessment has been focusing on what America’s students know and are capable of doing in various subject areas since 1969. In a follow-up to the NAEP 2009 Grade 12 Pilot, state-level data was again collected for Grade 12 schools participating in the NAEP 2013 reading and mathematics assessments. The other twelve states participating included: Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, South Dakota, Tennessee and West Virginia. The State of New Hampshire elected to participate in the NAEP 2013 Grade 12 Reading and Mathematics assessments to not only complement the existing grades 4 and 8 NAEP participation in Reading and Mathematics but to also provide comparative assessment measures to its earlier participation in NAEP 2009.

Nationwide, approximately 1,900 public high schools with just over 89,000 students participated in the NAEP 2013 Grade 12 Reading and Mathematics assessment. In New Hampshire, 77 high schools participated with approximately 5,900 students split between the Reading and Mathematics assessments. Demographically, there was an even split between male and female participation in New Hampshire with race/ethnicity representation of: 92 percent White, Non-Hispanic; 2 percent Black; 3 percent Hispanic; and 3 percent Asian/Pacific Islander.

For questions regarding New Hampshire’s NAEP 2013 Mathematics and Reading results, contact Tim Eccleston, New Hampshire’s NAEP Program Administrator at (603) 271-2298 or Timothy.Eccleston@doe.nh.gov. For a complete summary of NAEP 2013 results, visit the New Hampshire Department of Education NAEP webpage: www.education.nh.gov/instruction/assessment/naep. Additional NAEP information can be found at the Nation’s Report Card Web site, http://www.nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard.